24
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 6, Ch. 1]
To indicate the purity of  bhakti , devotional service, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says in  Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu  (1.1.11):
anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu- śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā
“One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.” Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī further explains that  bhakti  is  kleśa-ghnī śubhadā , which means if one takes to devotional service, all kinds of unnecessary labor and material distress cease entirely and one achieves all good fortune.  Bhakti  is so powerful that it is also said to be  mokṣa-laghutākṛt ; in other words, it minimizes the importance of liberation.
Nondevotees must undergo material hardships because they are prone to commit sinful fruitive activities. The desire to commit sinful actions continues in their hearts due to ignorance. These sinful actions are divided into three categories— pātaka ,  mahā-pātaka  and  atipātaka —and also into two divisions:  prārabdha  and  aprārabdha .  Prārabdha  refers to sinful reactions from which one is suffering at the present, and  aprārabdha  refers to sources of potential suffering. When the seeds ( bīja ) of sinful reactions have not yet fructified, the reactions are called  aprārabdha . These seeds of sinful action are unseen, but they are unlimited, and no one can trace when they were first planted. Because of  prārabdha , sinful reactions that have already fructified, one is seen to have taken birth in a low family or to be suffering from other miseries.
When one takes to devotional service, however, all phases of sinful life, including  prārabdha ,  aprārabdha  and  bīja , are vanquished. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.14.19) Lord Kṛṣṇa tells Uddhava:
yathāgniḥ susamṛddhārciḥ karoty edhāṁsi bhasmasāt tathā mad-viṣayā bhaktir uddhavaināṁsi kṛtsnaśaḥ